Unless otherwise noted, skills cannot be used outside
of battle, are not reflectable (with 'reflect' status), cannot be sealed (by Celes's
skill Magicseal Sword), work normally on undead targets, are affected by the
target's defense or magic defense, are half as effective when used on multiple
targets, and are blockable (through magic evasion).

Defense-ignoring physical attacks disregard the
following factors that would otherwise make a difference: attacker 'transform'
status, attacker 'berserk' status, critical hits, Jump damage bonus, target
defense, target 'protect' status, target defending, target in back row, and
hitting the target in the back. Usually it's the target defense that matters most
here, reducing defendable damage by about (defense / 256)%.

Defense-ignoring magic attacks disregard the
following factors that normally affect magic: attacker 'transform' status, target
defense, target 'shell' status, and target 'transform' status. Usually it's the target
magic defense matters most here, reducing defendable magic damage by
about (MDef / 256)%. Defense-ignoring magic also disregards critical hits, but since
spells can only critical when cast by a weapon that gets automatic critical hits,
which applies only to Flare as cast by the Ragnarök and Holy as cast by
the Lightbringer, this only matters for a Flare spell from the Ragnarök.

These romanizations of the names for the fourteen
main characters, incidentally, come directly from the ending, though
most are identical to how I would have written them anyway.

This command executes a normal attack,
in case that wasn't obvious. Wearing a
Proof of Initiation alters the way the command works as described
under that accessory. In short, that's four attacks, random targetting,
half damage, perfect hit rate, and no critical hits or weapon-cast
spells.

Most characters have a unique ability that MIGHT trigger
after selecting the Battle command while in 'near death' status. I refer to these
as "secret deathblow skills" below, though I've also seen the term
"desperation attack". These abilities will not occur when under
'confusion', 'transparent', 'decoy', or 'zombie' status, before 25.6 seconds
of battle have elapsed, or more than once per battle. Gau and Umaro have
no Battle command and thus have no secret deathblow skill.

ジャンプ

Jump

Jump

Equip the Wyrmknight's Boots to change
Battle into Jump. A character using Jump will leave the battlefield
briefly, then land on the target for bonus damage.

Characters in midjump cannot be targeted
or hit ('hidden' status?). Spears get a +100% damage bonus,
while everything else gets +50%. If using Genji's Glove to equip
two weapons, the user hits only once, with the weapon used to hit
chosen randomly, though it always displays the right-hand weapon.
Furthermore, having a spear as either weapon makes
the damage bonus +100% in this case, even if a non-spear makes
the actual hit. Jump also ignores row.

Equip the Wyvern's Horn along with the
Wyrmknight's Boots to add a second, and possibly third or
even fourth, attack per Jump.

まほう

Magic

Magic

The spell list appears under this
command. Press up at the top of the list to select the
equipped Genjuu (if available).

れんぞくま

Chain Magic

X-Magic

renzoku ma,
連続魔 in kanji.

Equip the Soul of Thamasa to change Magic
into Chain Magic. This disables summoning, but allows casting
two spells in one turn.

Note that each of the two spells cast is an
independent action, which for one thing means that each can be
counterattacked separately.

アイテム

Items

Items

The item list appears under this
command.

Aside from the obvious function of using
consumable items, pressing up at the top of the item list shows the
equipped weapon and shield, which may then be swapped out for
any in the inventory that the character can use. Items within the
inventory may also be swapped.

チェンジ

Change

Row

Off the left side of the battle menu.
Use to change rows.

Characters in the back row take half
damage from physical attacks, unless the attack ignores defense.
However, they also inflict half damage when using physical attacks,
unless the attack ignores attacker row, as certain weapons and
most skills do.

ぼうぎょ

Defend

Def.

Off the right side of the battle menu. Defend
until next command input.

This replaces Battle when characters are riding
Sorcerous Armor, which happens briefly several times during the
course of the game. The following abilities appear inside the
Sorcery command, with Tina getting several not available to any
other character. Most are not reflectable, but Fire Beam, Thunder
Beam, and Blizzard Beam are, oddly enough.

That has to be an oversight.
There's no way they should be reflectable... especially since the
game isn't set up to animate it correctly. It doesn't break anything,
but it sure does look strange.

ファイアビーム

Fire Beam

Fire Beam

Unblockable
Flame magic damage to a single
enemy. At 60 power, equals
Fira in strength.

サンダービーム

Thunder Beam

Bolt Beam

Unblockable
Thunder magic damage to a
single enemy. At 62 power, marginally stronger than
Thundara.

ブリザービーム

Blizzard Beam

Ice Beam

Unblockable
Ice magic damage to a single
enemy. At 61 power, marginally weaker than
Blizzara.

ヒールフォース

Heal Force

Heal Force

Heals one ally at 50 power, which
is five times as effective as Cure
and more than 75% the strength of
Curega. Unblockable. Ignores
defense. Damages undead targets.

バイオブラスター

Bio Blaster

Bio Blast

(Tina only) Unblockable
Poison magic damage to all
enemies (one side), also setting 'poison' and 'slip' status.
At 60 spell power, it's triple the strength of Edgar's Bio Blast,
or stronger than Bio in
addition to inflicting full damage to multiple targets.

コンフューザー

Confuser

Confuser

(Tina only) Confuses
all enemies (one side), 128 hit rate.

デジョネーター

Dejonator

X-fer

(Tina only) Sets 'incapacitated'
status on one enemy, dropping HP to 0. Delays dying counterattacks
when it succeeds, which usually means canceling them outright.
Stamina can block this. This ability has better accuracy at 120 hit rate
than Death and the Odin kill-all
summon, but less than the Raideen summon. However, that
only makes a difference when the target has some magic evade,
as stamina blocking doesn't care about accuracy.

まどうミサイル

Sorcery Missile

TekMissile

(Tina only) Unblockable
defense-ignoring magic damage to one enemy, slightly weaker
at 58 power than Flare,
and also sets 'slip' status.

ティナ

Tina (Branford)

Terra

Character
Class: まどうせんし (madou senshi, 魔導戦士, Battle Sorceress)

The change from "Tina"
to "Terra" was apparently a localization decision rather than
a translation failure. Tina is something of an exotic name in Japanese,
but was deemed too ordinary in English to use in the NA version, so they
picked a weirder name. Seems like an overreaction to me, but I suppose
it works. I still prefer "Tina" though. Wouldn't an unusual spelling
have been good enough, like "Teena" or "Teanah"
or something better than I can come up with right now? Maybe not.

Incidentally, when I first played the Japanese version,
before actually learning any Japanese, I remembered her name as being
three characters that vaguely resemble a T or t.

Summary

Tina starts in the party at the beginning of the game,
though she begins without a name. She is one of only two characters to have the
Magic command and spells to cast before acquiring magicite, and, like the other
one, even learns spells on her own as her level increases.

After the battle against Imperial forces in the Narshe icefields,
Tina is faced with a troubling revelation and leaves the party for a time. She rejoins
after the rest of the party returns from a visit to the Empire to seek the truth.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Tina is found in
the ruins of Mobliz, helping to care for
orphaned children. She initially won't rejoin, thinking that she's lost the
ability to fight, but when the party returns later after
getting the Falcon, she realizes
that she can, even must, fight to protect the people important to her.

Unique Abilities

トランス

Trans[form]

Morph

Or "Trance", but I find
that less likely considering she literally changes form.

The Transform command, gained during the course
of the storyline, allows Tina to change into a
Genjuu-like form. While transformed,
her attack and magic damage double (except when using
defense-ignoring attacks), and she takes half damage from magic
(also unless it ignores defense). However, staying transformed
depletes a timer. If it runs out, Tina reverts automatically,
and can't transform again until recharging. Win
LP from battles to charge the timer.

Transformation additionally doubles
the effect of 'regenerate' and 'slip' status, and also seems
to affect 'poison' similarly.

Tina can act again immediately after
transforming. This is not always apparent, since if any other
characters are able to act, their command windows tend to
appear before hers. Try making her the only party member to
see it.

The transformation gauge drains half as
quickly after the Major Plot Spoiler, allowing the change to last
twice as long.

もどる

Revert

Revert

Revert appears when transformed and allows
you to end the transformation early, useful for conserving energy.
As with transforming, Tina can act again immediately after
manually reverting. Similarly, automatically reverting when the
timer runs out does not cost a turn.

Natural Magic

In addition to her eventual powers of
transformation, Tina automatically learns certain spells as her
level increases:

"Lock" is the official spelling as
shown in the ending. I still haven't gotten used to spelling it without the final
"e".

Summary

Lock appears early in the game to help Tina out
of a sticky situation and remains with the party until the Major Plot Spoiler.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Lock resumes his search
for a way to revive Rachel, eventually finding the cave where Phoenix's
magicite is hidden. Find him and he rejoins after a scene, twice as
determined to protect those who live.

Unique Abilities

ぬすむ

Steal

Steal

Lock can steal items from opponents. Stealing
success rate depends on the difference between Lock's level and
the target's, not on agility or any other attributes. Equipping a Thief's
Bracelet doubles the success rate, though it's more complicated
than that. Each enemy has either a common item to steal, a rare
item to steal, one of each, or no items that can be stolen. Once an
enemy has been stolen from, that enemy cannot be stolen from
again, even if it had both a common item and a rare one, so Steal
can get one or the other, but not both from a single opponent.

The base chance to steal is (50 + (Lock's
level - target's level))%. The chance is thus 100% if Lock is at least
50 levels above his target, or if he's wearing a Thief's Bracelet and
is his level is the same as the target's or higher. So why does he
sometimes fail even when he has a 100% chance to steal? That's
the part that's more complicated. In addition to determining success
or failure, the game also randomly decides whether he's stealing a
rare item (1/8 chance) or a common item (7/8 chance). If the target
doesn't have an item of the type chosen, then he fails to steal,
even though he theoretically succeeded. This means that if an
enemy has only a rare item to steal, the best possible actual
success rate is one in eight, and similarly a maximum of seven in
eight for an enemy with only a common item, and there's nothing
you can do about it. This is why it's so hard to steal a Bandana in
Colts Mountain, for example, though actually it's easier to steal a
rare item when there's no common item, because this way you can
just keep trying when Lock tries to steal a common item—all
the fail messages just make it look worse.

At one point in the game, Lock can even
literally steal the clothes off his opponents' backs, disguising
himself to move around more freely.

The following message appears on
success:

{item}をぬすんだ！

Stole {item}!

Stole {item} x 1 !

When a failure message appears,
it indicates whether there's any point to trying again:

ぬすめなかった

Couldn't steal.

Couldn't steal!!

何も持っていない！！

Doesn't have anything!!

Doesn't have anything!

ぶんどる

Mug

Capture

Equipping a Thief's Bracer changes Steal
into Mug. When using Mug, Lock attacks the target in addition to
attempting to steal as with the Steal command. Due to a bug,
using Mug negates the special effects of many weapons, treating
them as ordinary weapons instead—apparently the value
used to check whether the theft succeeded overwrites the special
attack effect in memory. The general rule is that during-attack
effects are lost (Maneater's double damage to humanoids, Ultima
Weapon's unusual damage calculation, etc.), but after-attack effects
(mostly weapon-cast spells) remain. This can be either beneficial
or detrimental, depending on the weapon and the situation.

Mug works with the Proof of Initiation
accessory, but only sort of. You'll get the four attacks just fine,
but the stealing tends to foul up when there's more than a single
opponent. Basically, he can only steal one item per use, but you'll
see the same steal message again for every successful steal
check on the following hits, even though only the first success
actually steals anything. Worse, each of these steal-nothing
successes will also mark the enemies in question as stolen
from despite stealing nothing. In other words, if Lock Mugs
four enemies like this, hitting each and passing the thieving
check each time, it looks like you're getting four of the same
item, but you're really only stealing from one enemy and
getting one item, and you then can't actually steal from the
other three.

Success and failure messages are
the same as for Steal, but apply only to the attempted theft.
Damage will occur regardless, provided that the attack
doesn't miss outright.

"Cayenne" is the official spelling as
shown in the ending, and reflects the pronunciation (roughly kī ĕn) better
than "Cyan". The original name is too long for the NA version 6-character
limit, though I think "Cayan" or "Kyan" would have been better
choices for a shortened name. "Cyan" is, of course, spelled exactly like
the color cyan, which, unlike this name, is supposed to be pronounced with an
"s" sound.

Summary

Cayenne joins the party after Cefca poisons
his home country, killing nearly everyone, including Cayenne's wife
and son. Like most of the other characters, he is briefly unavailable
during the expedition to Thamasa.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Cayenne takes up
residence high atop Zozo Mountain,
where he exchanges letters with Lola,
posing as her dead lover in an apparent attempt to keep her from
falling into despair, and probably as something of a substitute
for his own lost family. He rejoins as soon as the party finds him, but
not until the Cayenne's Dream sidequest does he truly face and
overcome his loss.

Unique Abilities

ひっさつけん

Deathblow Sword

SwdTech

hissatsu ken,
必殺剣 in kanji. "Deathblow Sword" is probably
an overly literal translation. Something like "Lethal Blade"
or even the more generic "Swordplay" might
be preferable. The Internet tells me that it's "Bushido"
in the GBA remake, which is nice stylistically even if it's not very
accurate (like chivalry, bushido is more a code of conduct than a
style of combat).

Select this command, and a bar begins to fill.
Stop it at any time to use the skill corresponding with the number the
bar has reached (see below for individual skills). Be aware that
combat does not pause while the bar fills, which limits its usefulness.
Casting Quick negates this
disadvantage, since time stops
for everyone except the user until both extra turns are complete, but
it's not necessarily practical thanks to the spell's rarity and cost.

I forget whether it was in an official remake
or a fan-made patch, but I've heard of a modification to this skill
that lets you pick from a list, then applies the charge-up time in
the background after the selection, while you continue
to do other things with the rest of the group. Having that in the original
game would have gone a long way toward making this skill more
attractive.

Deathblow Sword requires that the user have
a compatible weapon equipped, though the weapon's attack power
unfortunately has no effect on the strength of the skills (other bonuses
may, depending on the skill). In addition to katanas and other swords,
several daggers work just fine. See the
weapons list for details.

Cayenne takes a counterattack stance and
will hit back with unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage when next
physically attacked. This invisible 'ready to counter' status makes him unable
to avoid physical attacks, but he still counterattacks if a physical attack
directed at him misses anyway (for example, when a non-damaging status
attack tries to inflict a status effect he's immune to). The effect lasts until he
counters or until a different command is entered, whichever comes first.
56 power, slightly less than Flare.

This skill has two interesting bugs that
are relatively minor on their own but form one major glitch when combined.

Bug 1: If Cayenne is incapacitated after
initiating the skill but before using the strikeback part, and is then revived,
he will "hit back" at an enemy with Sky whenever *anyone*
attacks *anyone* physically.

Bug 2: If Cayenne is put in 'kappa' status
after initiating the skill but before using the strikeback part, he will strike back
with a normal attack instead of Sky (since characters in 'kappa' status can't
use skills), but this won't clear the invisible 'ready to counter' status. He'll
keep striking back when attacked for the rest of the battle, until a new
command is input or 'kappa' is removed and he actually uses Sky.

Combine these for the so-called
"Psycho Cyan" glitch: Since he'll "strike back"
when anyone attacks anyone, he "counters" as soon as any
physical attack goes off. The 'ready to counter' status never wears off, so
he'll then "counter" his own attack, then "counter"
that, and so on until forced to stop (by dying of 'poison' status, for instance)
or all enemies are dead. If neither can occur, then you're stuck in an
infinite loop.

必殺剣 虎
敵１体のＨＰを半分にする

Deathblow Sword Tiger
Halves one enemy's HP

Slash
Halves an enemy's HP

Halves a random enemy's HP
(round fractions up) and also sets 'slip' status. Counts as a
physical attack. This will miss any target immune to instant
death, but is otherwise completely unblockable, even by
stamina.

必殺剣 舞
敵に４回ダメージ

Deathblow Sword Dance
Damages enemies four times

Quadra Slam
4-stroke attack

Strikes four times with unblockable
physical damage, 72 attack power, hitting a random enemy each
time (when surrounded, both sides are valid targets for each strike).
When possible, each strike avoids targeting any enemy that earlier
strikes have fatally damaged, so when faced with up to four
sufficiently weak enemies, this skill will reliably kill them all.

必殺剣 龍
敵１体からＨＰ・ＭＰ吸収

Deathblow Sword Dragon
Absorbs HP and MP from one enemy

Empowerer
Absorbs an enemy's HP/MP

Unblockable defense-ignoring
magic HP and MP damage to one random enemy, absorbing the
damage inflicted as recovery for the user. As is typical of absorption
attacks, Dragon works backwards on undead targets, and will never
take more than required to max out whoever is healed. The HP
portion has 49 power, not all that much weaker than
Flare's 60.
The MP portion has 12 power.

必殺剣 月
敵複数にダメージ＋ストップ

Deathblow Sword Moon
Damages and stops multiple enemies

Stunner
Multiple attack/casts "Stop"

Unblockable magic damage at
97 power (between -ra and -ga spells in power) to all enemies
(one side), and also attempts at 140 hit rate to inflict 'stop' status
on each enemy.

必殺剣 烈
敵に４回ダメージ

Deathblow Sword Fierce
Damages enemies four times

QuadraSlice
4-stroke attack

Strikes four times with
unblockable defense-ignoring physical damage, hitting a
random enemy each time (when surrounded, both sides are valid
targets for each strike). 70 attack power; though less than Dance,
it tends to inflict significantly more damage due to ignoring defense.
When possible, each strike avoids targeting any enemy that earlier
strikes have fatally damaged, so when faced with up to four
sufficiently weak enemies, this skill will reliably kill them all.

必殺剣 断
敵複数を一刀両断

Deathblow Sword Sever
Cuts multiple enemies in half with a single stroke

Cleave
Dices up enemies

Sets 'incapacitated' status on
all enemies (one side), dropping their HP to 0. Delays dying
counterattacks when it succeeds, which usually means canceling
them outright. This skill has exceptionally high accuracy
at 182 hit rate, and furthermore, stamina cannot block it,
unlike nearly every other instant-death attack. This virtually
guarantees that it will slay anything not outright immune to
instant death attacks.

Skill Acquisition

Cayenne learns more Deathblow Sword skills as
his level increases:

1 Fang

6 Sky

12 Tiger

15 Dance

24 Dragon

34 Moon

44 Fierce

70 Sever

The following message appears after the
level-up message when Cayenne learns a new skill:

燕返し in kanji, roughly "swallow
reversal". This refers to a sword skill that involves swinging a
blade in one direction, then swiftly and abruptly slashing in the opposite
direction. The famed swordsman Sasaki Kojirō favored
this technique, so named due to mimicking the motion of a swallow's
tail in flight, and supposedly having enough quickness and precision
to strike down a bird in mid-flight.

Shadow comes and goes as he pleases. He first
appears at the bar in South Figaro, alone save for his loyal dog Interceptor, where
Edgar comments that he would even kill a close friend for the right price. However,
Shadow offers to assist Mash, who is alone at the time and apparently hasn't even
heard of him, without charging a penny. He may run off after battle, though, and will
leave regardless once Mash and Cayenne reach Baren Falls.

According to Terii senshi's Algorithms FAQ, Shadow may
leave the group, if he is in it, at any time after the Imperial Army Encampment and
before the Mystic Continent, except on the Grim Train. He has a 1/16 chance of
leaving at the end of each battle, but will not leave if the battle is a back attack or if
either the party or the enemies are surrounded. Additionally, he never leaves when
he is the only character left standing or when he has 'incapacitated', 'zombie', or
'petrified' status.

Shadow shows up again at the bar in Kohlingen, and will join
for a price if the group has room for him, but will again run off at random, and always
leaves after the events at Zozo. Alternately, if you avoid hiring him until after Zozo,
he'll join for a price then, but will run off in the middle of the Opera House events,
leaving the party a member short for the whole first trip to the southern continent.

Later, the Empire
hires Shadow to go with Tina and Lock on the search for the Genjuu,
but soon after rescuing Relm and the others from a burning house in
Thamasa, he slips off again. He shows up once again on the Mystic
Continent, having been cast aside by the
Empire, and distracts Cefca while the others escape. If
you choose to wait for Shadow before
escaping to the airship, then five seconds before the timer runs
out, he shows up and escapes with everyone else. Otherwise,
he presumably dies in the collapse,
and is never seen again.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, assuming that
the others waited for him earlier, the
party finds Shadow deep in the cave on the
Beast Plain, about to be eaten by a behemoth. As soon as
he recovers, though, he heads off again, and shows up at
the Dragon's Neck Coliseum. Fight him
by wagering the Ichigeki Blade,
and he'll finally join permanently.

Shadow's past is shrouded in mystery, but it keeps
coming back to haunt him in his dreams. Four of the dreams appear
randomly when staying at an inn with Shadow in the active party, and
the fifth appears after saving him from the behemoth.

Unique Abilities

なげる

Throw

Throw

Shadow can throw most
weapons, including shuriken, for extra
damage, and can also toss some ninja
scrolls and a few other items for good measure. Naturally,
throwing an item removes it from the inventory. Scrolls have
special effects as described on the items page.

A thrown weapon deals physical damage using the
weapon's element and attack power, but ignoring all other properties of the
weapon. The attack is unblockable, gets a +100% damage bonus, and
is also unaffected by the following factors that affect most physical attacks:
target defense, target 'protect' status, target defending, target in back row,
and attacker in back row. Unlike typical defense-ignoring attacks, Throw *does*
get the damage bonuses for attacker 'transform' or 'berserk' status and for
hitting the target in the back, when applicable, though no one who can Throw
can normally be transformed (only possible through a glitch), and 'berserk'
characters can't use Throw unless they already have the command queued
when the status hits.

A failure message exists in the game data,
but as far as I know it will never appear, as you can't select
anything you can't Throw in the first place:

投げられない！！

Can't Throw!!

Can't throw!!

ハウンドタックル

Hound Tackle

Takedown

ワイルドファング

Wild Fang

Wild Fang

Shadow's dog Interceptor sometimes
blocks physical attacks meant for Shadow, and will sometimes
use one of these attacks after blocking. Both inflict unblockable
defense-ignoring magic damage using Shadow's stats, but
always miss enemies with 'levitate' status. Hound Tackle, at
55 power, has slightly less impact than
Flare, while
Wild Fang has a bit more at 66.

Warning:
A bug in the Ripple skill means that Shadow can lose his invisible
'Interceptor guard' status! Don't let enemies use Ripple on him,
or if they do, at least have another character use Ripple on that
enemy to "steal" Interceptor back.

Note that although Interceptor appears
to take damage, he doesn't actually have hit points and cannot
die.

Secret Deathblow Skill

シャドウファング

Shadow Fang

ShadowFang

Massive unblockable defense-ignoring
magic damage to one enemy, 140 power (for comparison,
Flare is 60). Also causes
'slip' status, making it the only secret deathblow to inflict a
status effect in addition to damage.

エドガー

Edgar (Roni Figaro)

Edgar

Character
Class: マシーナリー (Machinery)

Summary

Edgar, the young king of Figaro, joins the party
soon after Tina and Lock arrive at his castle. Except for a brief absence during
the search for the Genjuu around Thamasa, he sticks around until the Major Plot
Spoiler splits everyone up.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Celes (possibly accompanied
by Mash) finds Edgar in Nikaea, posing as the leader
of a gang of thieves. He rejoins after he uses
the thieves to get into Figaro Castle and fixes the problem that kept
the castle stuck underground. Edgar is one of the three mandatory endgame
characters.

Unique Abilities

きかい

Machines

Tools

This command allows Edgar to use machines
intended for this purpose. He can only use machines actually in
your inventory, but they never break or run out, so you only ever
need one of each. Refer to the items
page for details on the eight available machines and their
effects.

I guess the localization team decided
"Mash" wasn't believable as a name. That or they
thought it was "Matthew" (it's not) and decided that
was too ordinary. I do have to admit that "Sabin"
is more credible, even if it appears to have been pulled out
of thin air.

Hroþgar SCRB adds that it's supposed
to be a nickname for Macias (マシアス). Though phonetically
this ought to make a simple shortening closer to "mass",
the nickname has clearly been tweaked from its source,
and "Mash" just seems appropriate, not to mention
quite likely intentional. The English version name, on the other
hand, may be a reference to wrestler Chris Sabin.

Summary

Mash, Edgar's younger twin brother,
joins the party in the middle of the battle with Vargas on Colts Mountain.
He stays with the party until the Major Plot Spoiler, except for a brief
absence during the expedition to find the Genjuu near Thamasa.

It's unclear what Mash spent his time doing after the
Major Plot Spoiler, but he turns up in Tzen,
holding up a damaged building (those muscles aren't just for show!) to
give the child inside a chance to escape. Rescue the child, and he lets
the building drop and rejoins.

The player must enter a button sequence correctly for Mash
to use a Deathblow Technique. See below for the techniques and combinations.
Several inputs involve "rotating" the directional pad, but all of these
have an alternate input that some people find easier to use: Instead of rotating
through diagonals, tap the cardinal direction before each diagonal twice (e.g.,
CCW spin left to right becomes left, left, down, down, right).

Note also that left and right do
not mean forward and backward, unlike standard
fighting games, but always stay left and right,
regardless of which way Mash is facing. Trying to flip the
directions will result in failure. For instance, Aura Cannon
does not go from down to right when the party
is attacked from behind.

If the input given is not recognized by
the game or is for a skill not yet learned, it is accepted as
usual, but when Mash actually attempts to perform the skill,
nothing happens and the following message appears:

(X, Y, down, up) Defense-ignoring
physical damage to a single random enemy, 180 attack power.
Inferior to Bakuretsu Ken in most cases since the damage is
halved when there's more than a single opponent. Unblockable,
except that it automatically fails against certain enemies.

Typically, anything that's
airborne or somehow anchored (to the ground, another monster,
etc.) is immune. When using Meteor Strike against a mixture of
immune and non-immune enemies, the attack will always select
one that it will work against.

ほうおうのまい
炎属性の複数ダメージ

Houou no Mai
Multi-target Flame damage

Fire Dance
Fire-attack slams enemies

鳳凰の舞 in
kanji, roughly "Firebird Dance".

(CCW spin left to right) Unblockable
Flame magic damage to all enemies
(one side), full damage even against multiple targets. 42 power, which
falls somewhere between Fire and
Fira against a single target, but
beats Fira against multiple
targets because the damage isn't reduced.

チャクラ
本人以外をリフレッシュ

Chakra
Refresh everyone but user

Mantra
Refreshes other party members

(L, R, L, R, X, Y) Heals all allies
(both sides) except the user an amount equal to the user's current
HP divided by the number of people healed, and also cures 'darkness',
'poison', 'silence', and 'slip' status. The effect is unblockable, ignores
defense, and damages the undead.

Strictly speaking,
it's actually (user's current HP) / (size of target group - 1),
which makes it buggy if he uses it while confused. In
particular, striking a single enemy results in a divide by
zero and giving it massive amounts of healing.

しんくうは
風属性の複数ダメージ

Shinkuu Ha
Multi-target Wind damage

Air Blade
Wind-attack slams enemies

真空波
in kanji, roughly "Vacuum Wave".

(CW spin up to left) Unblockable
Wind magic damage to all enemies
(one side), full damage even against multiple targets. 78 power, which
exceeds a -ra spell against a single target, and beats -ga spells
against multiple targets because the damage isn't reduced.

スパイラルソウル
命とひきかえに仲間を回復

Spiral Soul
Recover teammates in exchange for life

Spiraler
Recovers party at own expense

(R, L, X, Y, right, left)
At the cost of removing the user from the battle, Spiral Soul heals
heals every other character (both sides, but kills the undead) at
200 power,
roughly triple Curega,
and also cures 'darkness', 'zombie',
'poison', 'kappa', 'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk',
'confusion', 'slip', 'sleep', 'slow', 'stop', and 'frozen' status.
This effect is unblockable and ignores defense. The user
cannot be revived—even 'reraise' status does
nothing—remains completely unavailable until after
the battle, and will have 0 HP and 0 MP even then.

My opinion? Worthless.
Avoid this one at all costs unless you're really desperate,
and in that case, he's probably more useful alive anyway.

むげんとうぶ
敵１体に大ダメージ

Mugen Toubu
Great damage to one enemy

Bum Rush
Strikes a mortal blow

That's 夢幻闘舞 in kanji,
and nearly impossible to translate without knowing so. It means,
approximately, "Phantasmic War Dance". And I'm not
even going to speculate on where they got "Bum Rush"
from...

(CW spin from left back to left)
Unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage to one random
enemy. 128 power, more than double
Flare's 60.

Skill Acquisition

Mash will learn more Deathblow Techniques
as his level increases:

1 Bakuretsu Ken

6 Aura Cannon

10 Meteor Strike

15 Houou no Mai

23 Chakra

30 Shinkuu Ha

42 Spiral Soul

70 Mugen Toubu

The following message appears
when he learns one:

新しい必殺技をあみだした！

Devised a new Deathblow Technique!

Devised a new Blitz!

Visiting Master
Duncan later in the game enables Mugen Toubu,
regardless of level.

Secret Deathblow Skill

タイガーブレイク

Tiger Break

TigerBreak

Massive unblockable defense-ignoring
magic damage to one enemy, 140 power (for comparison,
Flare is 60 and Mugen
Toubu is 128).

セリス

Celes (Chere)

Celes

Character
Class: ルーンナイト (Rune Knight)

Summary

Celes starts out as a general of the Empire,
but turns against them and is jailed in South
Figaro when she finds out about the plans to poison Doma.
Lock rescues her and talks her into helping, and she joins the party.
She allows herself to be captured in the Sorcery
Research Laboratory to give Lock and the others a chance
to escape, and though she's later released, it's not until after
the Mystic Continent rises that she is
able to return to the party.

Celes is badly hurt in the Massive Plot Spoiler, and
remains unconscious on a barren island for a year. When she finally wakes
up, the only other living person left on the island is Cid,
who cared for her while she was incapacitated, but is becoming gravely ill
himself. One way or another, though, Celes finds hope and crosses to the
mainland on a raft her fellow islander built, searching for the others,
especially Lock. Celes is one of the three
mandatory endgame characters.

Unique Abilities

まふうけん

Magicseal Sword

Runic

mafuu ken, 魔封剣 in kanji.

When Celes uses Magicseal Sword, she can
"seal" magic. The effect lasts until the user seals one spell
or a different command is entered for the user, whichever comes first.
Sealed spells cause no damage and instead recover the user's MP
by the (normal) casting cost of the spell. Some magics ignore it,
but it can seal several spell-like enemy skills in addition to every
normal spell except Meteor,
Quake,
Tornado,
Melton,
Teleport,
and Quick. This means that
it does work against the mighty
Ultima, which is great
if you know an opponent is going to use it, except in that one
tower that disables most commands.

One downside is that this doesn't discriminate friend from foe.
Celes will seal spells cast by her allies just as readily as the ones the enemies
cast. However, since she can only seal one spell per use, careful timing will let
her null out most hostile magic while still leaving your own spells alone.

If more than one character has Magicseal
Sword active when an affected spell with multitargeting ability is
cast (even when the spell is only cast on a single target), each such
character absorbs the spell and splits the MP gain. If the spell must
have only a single target, only one Magicseal Sword user does the
sealing animation or gets any MP, but the amount gained is still
reduced as though split, and all sealers still go inactive as though
having sealed the spell. In short, you should never use Magicseal
Sword with multiple characters simultaneously, though having one
on standby, waiting to use it after the other seals, may help.

Magicseal Sword requires that the user have
a compatible weapon equipped, but despite the name, a variety of
non-sword weapons work just fine, notably the Wizard Rod, but
mostly daggers and spears. See the
weapons list for details.

However, when the game itself,
rather than the player, takes control (typically due to
'confusion' status or fighting in the coliseum), a character
with Magicseal Sword may use it regardless of weapon.
Apparently, someone missed coding a check.

Characters have their level determined
by the party average when they join or rejoin the party. Because
of an oddity in the sorting of her natural magic list, if Celes reaches
at least level 32 by (re)joining the party, but doesn't reach at least
level 40 at the same time, she won't learn
Confuse naturally.
Apparently, with her level in this range, the game stops checking
for learned magic once it sees the level requirement of 40 on
Berserk.

"Stragus" is the official spelling
as shown in the ending. It was most likely trimmed for length, with the "u"
changed to an "o" since "Stragu" doesn't really work.

Summary

Stragus, like nearly everyone in his
village of Thamasa, initially just wants to send Tina, Lock, and Shadow
away as quickly as possible when they come to town. However, when
his granddaughter Relm gets trapped in a burning building, he gives away
the village secret that they have magic
in his determination to save her. He then joins forces with Tina and Lock,
first to rescue Relm, then to search for the Genjuu, and stays on when he
finds out about what the Empire is plotting.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Stragus, apparently
having given up hope, is involved in a cult that marches around
at the base of a tower on the now above-ground
Serpent's Way. Relm is able
to snap him out of it, after which he rejoins the party.

Unique Abilities

おぼえたわざ

Memorized Techniques

Lore

Stragus can learn a wide variety of enemy
skills just by seeing them in use (unlike in many other Final Fantasy
games, they don't need to hit or even target him). See below for
more detail on these abilities. Once learned, they work much like
ordinary magic, which includes being unavailable in 'silence' status,
though they tend to have more exotic effects. None of Stragus's
Memorized Techniques can be sealed or reflected, and all are
magical rather than physical.

Stragus must actually be in combat and
able to observe the skill when it is used, meaning that he can't
have 'darkness', 'zombie', 'petrified', 'incapacitated', 'confusion',
'sleep', 'stop', 'rage', 'frozen', or 'hidden' status at that time (this
is incidentally just about the only thing the 'darkness' status ever
does, thanks to the evade bug). His condition at the end of the
battle doesn't matter as long as the party wins (all monsters die
or flee)—he can even be flat on the ground with zero HP.
Various other ways of ending battle won't work, including running
away, Gau using Leap or returning from it, and fighting in the
coliseum.

Of note is that Black Force (Dark Force)
randomly uses 19 of these 24 skills in its normal AI script, and
Sketching it frequently yields a 20th, Great Tidal Wave. The only
Memorized Techniques that you can't learn from it are Mighty Guard,
Force Field, Fusion, and Grand Trine.

When Stragus learns a new ability, the
following message appears at the end of combat:

{skill}をラーニング

Learned {skill}.

Learned {skill}

More literally, "{skill} Learning'd."
Learning is the passive Blue Mage skill in FFV that allows enemy
skills to be learned.

しのせんこく
カウントダウンする デス

Death Sentence
Counts down to death

Condemned
Begins doom countdown

死の宣告 in kanji.

20MP. Inflicts 'death sentence'
status on one enemy. Unblockable, but fails if the target is immune
to instant death.

Interesting, but since it only
works against targets vulnerable to instant death anyway,
you might as well use something more immediate.

しのルーレット
ルーレットする デス

Death Roulette
Spins a roulette for death

Roulette
Begins doom roulette

10 MP. Unblockable instant death
to one random target, enemy or ally. Fails if the target is immune to
instant death, but the player version works even on the undead.

The player version of this spell
also always selects an enemy when not cast manually (through Gau's
Ahriman Rage, for example). Monster scripts instead use a special
variant that, in addition to selecting a completely random target, heals
undead like Death does.

だいかいしょう
水属性のダメージ

Great Tidal WaveWater damage

CleanSweep
Water-element damage

大海嘯 in kanji.
海嘯 refers to a literal tidal wave, caused by the tide, and its proper English name
is a "tidal bore". A tsunami is something different, caused by an
underwater earthquake and therefore not actually tidal despite the popular
name. However, 海嘯 can also refer to a tsunami, just to complicate things.
The NA name may come from a misinterpretation of かいしょう as
解消 (cancellation, dissolution).

30 MP. Water
magic damage to all enemies (both sides), a bit weaker at 50 power
than -ra attack spells, but inflicts full damage to all regardless of how many
there are, which puts it closer to -ga spells against a group. 150 hit rate.

As of FFX-2, this is the Worst Mighty Guard
Ever in FF history. Because I feel like it, here's a brief comparison list:
FFV: 72 MP. A real pain to learn.
Gives 'levitate' in addition to reducing all defendable damage by 1/2.
First appearance.
FFVI: 80 MP. Difficult to learn.
Reduces all defendable damage by 1/3.
FFVII: 56 MP. Need Manipulate to learn, but not difficult.
Gives 'haste' in addition to reducing all defendable damage by 1/2.
FFVIII: Desperation attack. Not too hard to learn.
Always reduces all defendable damage by 1/2, may also give
any or all of 'haste', 'levitate', 'regenerate', and 'aura' statuses,
and I've heard it can even give 'invincible' status in extreme
cases.
FFIX: 64 MP. Not especially hard to learn.
Reduces all defendable damage by 1/2.
FFX: Overdrive. Fairly easy to learn.
Reduces all defendable damage by 1/2.
FFX-2: 32 MP. Moderately difficult to learn.
Reduces all defendable damage by 1/2.
There you have it, FFVI's Mighty Guard is both the least powerful and
most expensive (arguably excepting FFX) of any of them.

Not that it's a bad
spell, it just seems like kind of a ripoff, especially when summoning
Zone Seeker gets you the more useful half of the effect ('shell') for
less than half the cost at 30 MP.

リベンジブラスト
へったＨＰ分 ダメージ

Revenge Blast
Damage corresponds to lost HP

Revenge
HP lowering attack

31 MP.
Inflicts exactly the user's max HP minus user's current HP in unblockable
and undefendable damage to one enemy.

Ugh. Bad NA description. It looks
like "amount HP is reduced" was confused with "reduces
HP".

The NA version description,
though not inaccurate as such, is hideously vague. The name
change is also silly.

Being unreflectable, this spell
works wonders for healing through 'reflect' status.

レベル５デス
レベルが５の倍数の敵にデス

Level 5 Death
Death on enemies with levels divisible by 5

L.5 Doom
Casts "Doom" on LV5, 10, 15, ...
enemy

22 MP.
Kills all enemies (both sides) with a level that is a multiple of 5.
Works even on the undead, but not on enemies immune to instant
death. This skill will never hit targets that do not have a compatible
level, even those with 'transparent' status, but will remove 'transparent'
status from all targets anyway.

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

レベルが５の倍数のキャラにデス

Death on characters with levels divisible by 5.

Casts "Doom" on LV5, 10,...person

レベル４フレア
レベル４の倍数の敵にフレア

Level 4 Flare
Flare on enemies with levels divisible by 4

L.4 Flare
Casts "Flare" on LV2, 4, 6, ...
enemy

42 MP. Defense-ignoring magic
damage on all enemies (both sides) with a level that is a multiple
of 4, slightly stronger at 66 power than a standard
Flare spell. Full damage even
against multiple targets. This skill will never hit targets that do not
have a compatible level, even those with 'transparent' status,
but will remove 'transparent' status from all targets anyway.

...since when are 2 and 6
multiples of 4?

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

レベルが４の倍数のキャラにフレア

Flare on characters with levels divisible by 4.

Casts "Flare" on LV4, 8,...person

レベル３コンフュ
レベルが３の倍数の敵に混乱

Level 3 Confuse
Confusion on enemies with levels divisible by 3

L.3 Muddle
Casts "Muddle" on LV3, 6, 9, ...
enemy

28 MP. Sets 'confusion' status on
all enemies (both sides) with a level that is a multiple of 3. This skill
will never hit targets that do not have a compatible level, even
those with 'transparent' status, but will remove 'transparent' status
from all targets anyway.

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

レベルが３の倍数キャラにコンフュ

Confusion on characters with levels divisible by 3.

Casts "Muddle" on LV3, 6,...person

リフレク？？？？
リフレク敵にステータス攻撃

Reflect????
Status attack on enemies with Reflect

Reflect???
Status-attack on wall-protected
enemy

0 MP. Inflicts 'darkness',
'silence', and 'slow' status to all enemies (both sides) with
'reflect' status, but has no effect on those without it.
Unblockable.

I'm guessing the
NA description involves confusion with the translation
of "reflect" as "wall" in FF2us
(FFIV), or with the Reflect Ring's translated name of
Wall Ring.

The Three Stars accessory
actually increases the cost of Reflect????
(to a whopping 1 MP).

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

リフレクのキャラに？？？？

???? on characters with Reflect.

???? on wall-protected person

レベル？ホーリー
レベルが？の敵にホーリー

Level ? Holy
Holy on enemies with levels that are ?

L? Pearl
Pearl attack on LV ? enemy

50 MP.
Holy magic damage to all enemies
(both sides) with a level that is a multiple of the last digit of the
party's gil. At 120 power, it's stronger than the standard
Holy spell when cast
against a single target, but is weaker when used against multiple
enemies. This skill will never hit targets that do not have a
compatible level, even those with 'transparent' status, but will
remove 'transparent' status from all targets anyway.

The game treats all levels
as multiples of 0 for this check, so the skill will strike all targets
when the party's gil total ends in 0 or 1.

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

レベルが？の倍数キャラにホーリー

Holy on characters with levels divisible by ?.

Pearl attack on level ? enemy

ほすうダメージ
歩数に応じたダメージ

Pacing Damage
Damage proportional to number of steps

Step Mine
Damage in proportion to # of
steps

ほすう
(hosuu, 歩数) literally
means the number of steps taken.

(minutes of play time / 30) MP,
but monsters always use 1 MP instead. Inflicts unblockable
undefendable damage equal to exactly (total number of steps
taken / 32). Both values are truncated (rounded down).
The damage reaches maximum (9,999) after 319,968 steps.
Total play time and total step count both appear on the
menu screen.

フォースフィルド
空間に属性無効バリアをはる

Force Field
Erects a trait-nulling barrier in the area

ForceField
Throws up anti-elemental
barrier

24 MP. Nullifies one random
attack trait for the rest of the battle, causing all attacks of that
element to deal zero damage regardless of anything else.
When used repeatedly in the same battle, it will select an
element each time that is not already nulled, until all eight
are.

This ability can ONLY be
learned from Godfiend (Doom), which begins
using it after dropping to about half health.

One of the following messages
appears when this skill is used successfully:

Since the user's level
affects nearly all attack damage and many success rates,
this has more of an impact than it may sound like it does.
It also helps with improving success rate for Steal and Mug,
which compare the thief's level to the target's.

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

レベルが半分にダウン

Level cut in half.

Level is halved

くさいいき
敵にステータス攻撃

Foul Breath
Status attack to an enemy

Sour Mouth
Inflicts status ailment on an
enemy

臭い息 in kanji. Meanwhile,
the NA version description is missing a necessary plural.

Due to how the game
changes sprites, monsters under 'kappa' status
may not appear to be unless it's inflicted by
Kappa.

ゆうごう
自分の命を仲間にたくす

Fusion
Entrusts own life to teammate

Pep Up
Uses own HP to save the party

融合 in kanji.

1 MP. At the cost of completely
removing the caster from combat, restores one ally to full HP and
MP (even if undead), and cures 'darkness', 'zombie', 'poison',
'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk', 'confusion', 'slip',
'sleep', 'slow', and 'stop' status. The user cannot be revived,
remains completely unavailable until after the battle, and will
have 0 HP and 0 MP even then.

Save the party. Wow. How
about that. Too bad it's nowhere near as good as that makes it
sound.

My opinion? Worthless. Avoid
using even if you're really desperate. This skill makes Mash's Spiral
Soul look good by comparison, though at least it won't kill off undead
characters.

Additionally, due to a bug, it also
exchanges a variety of status effects that it's not supposed to: 'Sorcerous Armor',
'petrified', 'near death', 'dance', 'rage', 'frozen', 'transform', 'chanting', and
'Interceptor guard' status, and in theory also 'incapacitated' and
'hidden' status, though I can't find any way to test the last two (units
with those status effects are untargetable and can't use the skill
either).

Since you can't target allies
with Ripple, it's difficult to manage (you need an enemy that uses
it too), but it's possible to do some very interesting things with this
bug. One interesting thing is to swap 'transformed' with Tina...
the user gets her transformed appearance (and bonuses), and
with no time limit...!

More seriously, moving
the 'chanting' status caused by using Relm's Control skill onto
another character will lock up the
game when that character's command menu appears,
probably because the game can't figure out what that character
is Controlling. It's also very possible for Shadow to "lose"
Interceptor because of this bug. Keep him away from enemies
that use the skill.

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

ステータスこうかん

Status exchange

Status exchange

いしつぶて
ダメージ＋混乱

Stoning
Damage + Confusion

Stone
Damages and Muddles an enemy

22 MP. Inflicts magic damage
at 40 power, and 'confusion' status to one or all enemies (one side).
If the caster and target have equal levels, the damage gets a
massive +650% bonus. This skill has a low hit rate of 75 and may
therefore miss even targets with no magic evade.

The NA version introduces
an inaccuracy by adding extra words and using a singular where
singular is wrong.

The following message appears
when an enemy uses this skill:

こんらんしろ！

Get confused!

Be confused!

Stragus already knows this skill
when he first joins the party.

クエーサー
全敵に防御無視ダメージ

Quasar
Defense-ignoring damage to all enemies

Quasar
Damage pierces enemies'
defenses

50 MP. Unblockable
defense-ignoring magic damage to all enemies (both sides),
over 50% stronger at 57 power than
Meteor.

グランドトライン
全敵に防御無視の大ダメージ

Grand Trine
Great defense-ignoring damage to all enemies

GrandTrain
Mortal damage pierces enemies'
defenses

A
grand trine
means an arrangement of three planets (or the moon or sun) all 120
degrees from each other, something astrology finds significant.

64 MP. Unblockable defense-ignoring
magic damage to all enemies (both sides). With 84 power,
it's about 50% stronger than Quasar, or a bit better than half as
strong as Ultima.

This ability can ONLY be
learned from Hidden, which uses it when all its minions are killed.
Don't worry about missing it, though, since the boss reappears
and can be fought again if you keep talking to the NPC that
started the sidequest.

じばく
命とひきかえに大ダメージ

Self-Destruct
Great damage in exchange for life

Exploder
Forfeit life to inflict mortal
damage

自爆 in kanji.

1 MP. Inflicts the caster's current
HP in unblockable and undefendable damage to both caster and
target (which will knock out the caster).

Secret Deathblow Skill

セバーソウル

Sever Soul

SabreSoul

Kills one enemy. Always succeeds, even
against the undead, unless the target is immune to instant death.

リルム

Relm (Arrowny)

Relm

Character
Class: ピクトマンサー (Pictomancer)

Summary

Unlike Stragus, Relm is excited to have visitors,
and almost reveals the town's secret without any prompting. After her
rescue from a burning building, she wants to accompany Tina, Lock,
and Stragus to search for the Genjuu, but Stragus won't let her. She
follows them anyway, though, and formally joins the party after a
rather silly scene with Orthros (what other kind of scene does
that giant octopus have?).

After the Massive Plot Spoiler, Relm winds up painting
for Auzar. Work through
his mansion and beat the demon possessing the painting, and she'll
rejoin.

If Shadow didn't make it off
the Mystic Continent, Relm shows up in
the cave on the Beast Plain in his place, and won't appear in her
other location until rescued. Like Shadow, she has a dream of the past
while recovering...

Unique Abilities

スケッチ

Sketch

Sketch

The user attempts to draw an enemy. If
successful, this uses one of two abilities associated with that
enemy, at no cost. Sketching success rate depends on the ratio
of the users's level to the target's. Equipping the Beret increases
success rate. Despite the existence of several paintbrush weapons,
the user does not need to equip one to use Sketch, nor do they
influence the success rate or effectiveness in any way. See the
monster page (incomplete) for
possible Sketch effects. Sketch will always fail if the target has
'transparent' status.

The base chance to succeed is (user's
level / target's level), which means 100% chance when the user's level
is at least as high as the target's. Equipping a Beret effectively
gives roughly a 50% bonus to user level when determining success
rate. Some monsters can never be Sketched. Each monster has
two abilities defined for Sketch use, a common (3/4 chance) one
and an uncommon (1/4 chance) one. Damage and success
calculation for these skills use the Sketcher's level, but the subject's
strength and attack power (if physical) or magic power (if magical),
which usually results in rather feeble effects. This does at
least get the bonus from the Giant's Bracer, Earring, or Brave Ring
when applicable, but weapon strength has no effect.
Additionally, when using Sketch under 'silence' status, the effect
will fail if attemping anything that would normally have an MP cost,
even though Sketch doesn't use any MP anyway.

Sadly, in addition to using the Sketch
target's (typically inferior) stats, most enemies simply have pathetic
effects. There's a distressing tendency to get basic attacks,
even from powerful monsters, and quite a few yield magic that
matches the monster's type and just gets absorbed. Bizarrely,
some of the weakest monsters have needlessly powerful
effects. For instance, Sketching a Highway (Repo Man),
one of the most pathetic monsters in the game, usually yields
Flare! In contrast, Sketching
the Ultima Weapon (AtmaWeapon) typically results in a normal
attack (probably weaker than her own), with a smaller chance
of seeing its special attack Full Power! instead (twice as strong,
but still fairly sad). Most other bosses are no better, and some
are even worse.

Sketch has been known to cause (more or
less) unpredictable and sometimes serious glitching on the FF3us
v1.0 ROM when it misses. Be especially careful with
invisible enemies and opponents that aren't properly monsters
(like Gau). Common effects include crashes, graphic glitches, and
jumbled inventory. The short explanation is that when Sketch
misses, the game tries loading the monster graphic anyway,
but reads from unrelated data that shouldn't be treated like that.
If you're interested in details, try Master ZED's
FF3
Sketch Bug Guide, which dissects the bugged assembly
code and details various glitching results. This bug is fixed in
FF3us v1.1 (though you can disable the fix with a PAR code),
and apparently the glitching never occurs at all in the original
Japanese version or in the PSX or GBA remakes.

The following message appears if
attempting to Sketch a monster that disallows it:

スケッチできない！！

Can't Sketch!!

Can't sketch!!

あやつる

Control

Control

The Impresario's Mustache accessory
changes Sketch into Control. Control allows the user to take
control of an opponent, making it follow her orders instead of
acting on its own. The user can do nothing else while controlling
a foe, and the target will break free if hit physically. Control will
also end if the monster or user dies, or if either is hit with a status
effect that prevents action ('stop', 'sleep', etc.) or makes the victim
act uncontrollably ('zombie', 'confusion', etc.). Control success
rate depends on the ratio of the user's level to the target's.
Equipping the Hypno Crown increases the success rate. See
the monster page (incomplete)
for the commands available through Control (which are also
the abilities the monster will use in the coliseum or when in
'confusion' status).

The base chance to succeed is (user's level /
target's level), just like Sketch. Equipping a Hypno Crown effectively
gives roughly a 50% bonus to user level when determining success
rate. Some monsters can never be Controlled. Damage and success
calculation for skills used through Control use the enemy's attributes
rather than the user's, which often results rather feeble effects.
Also, just to make things strange, these abilities consume no MP from
anyone, yet the game prevents you from commanding an action when
the monster doesn't have enough MP to use it normally. On top of that,
the usability doesn't update immediately when the actual MP value
changes.

Additionally, certain skills override
targeting and will always attack the player characters,
even when activated through Control.

The following message appears if
attemping to Control a monster that disallows it:

あやつれない！！

Can't Control!!

Can't control!!

Secret Deathblow Skill

スタープリズム

Star Prism

Star Prism

Kills one enemy. Always succeeds, even
against the undead, unless the target is immune to instant
death.

セッツァー

Setzer (Gabbiani)

Setzer

Character Class: ギャンブラー (Gambler)

Summary

The party seeks Setzer's aid because
he has the world's only airship, and they need to reach the Empire quickly.
Setzer, though, is only interested in carrying off the opera star Maria. Lock
and Celes manage to get aboard his airship by
having Celes pose as Maria, and Setzer, though annoyed at
being tricked, agrees to a coin toss that stakes his help against
having his way with Celes. However, Celes
uses a two-headed coin borrowed from Edgar
to cheat, and Setzer, impressed by the trick and intrigued by the risk,
pledges his whole-hearted assistance. He joins the party as a playable
character during the escape from Vector, but is temporarily unavailable
while he fixes the airship after a certain event, until he finishes and brings
most of the rest of the party to meet up in Thamasa.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Celes and Edgar (possibly
accompanied by Mash) find Setzer hanging out at the bar in Kohlingen,
depressed at the loss of his airship. Their arrival, and a profound
speech from Celes, fills him with a new hope, and he rejoins
to lead them to the underground hangar storing
his deceased(?) friend's airship, which he then puts back into operation.
Setzer is one of the three mandatory endgame characters.

Unique Abilities

スロット

Slots

Slot

Setzer starts up a semi-interactive slot
machine, which has a wide variety of possible effects,
depending on the outcome of the spin. The outcome
is NOT fully random, and the slots ARE rigged to make it much
harder to get certain combinations, though they will also nudge
results toward valid outcomes after partially completing
them (for example, once you have two chocobos lined up, you're
practically guaranteed to get the third to finish spinning
Chocobo Rush). See below for possible spins.

Chocobo Rush and Seven Flash (and,
of course, Mysidia Rabbit) can always come up, and tend to do
so very easily. 7-7-BAR is also always a possiblity, but the
game will never attempt to steer results toward it (unlike every
other special spin that it allows at the time), so your odds of
seeing it are very low unless you're deliberately trying to land
on it. BAR-BAR-BAR and Diving Bomb are possible spins
roughly half the time, Sun Flare roughy one fourth of the time,
and 7-7-7 only one thirty-second of the time. For details of how
the slot rigging works and how to manipulate it in your favor,
look up Master ZED's Slot ability Guide.

(name of summon)

(name of summon)

(name of summon)

BAR - BAR - BAR

Summons any Genjuu except Odin or Raideen, chosen
at random. Note that this includes Jihad (Crusader), which attacks
the entire battlefield and will likely kill you at lower levels.

Also interesting, at least in theory, is that
you have a chance to summon Ragnarök even early in the
game, making it remotely possible to morph certain enemies into
equipment that is otherwise unavailable until much later. However,
given the low odds of spinning BAR-BAR-BAR, the low odds of
getting Ragnarök as the summon, the low odds of the attack
succeeding, and the low odds of getting the item you want even
when it does succeed, this is more of a curiosity than a practical
benefit.

All allies die (both sides).
Always succeeds, regardless of immunity, but very rarely
occurs. Instant game over unless someone has 'reraise'
status or has already fled or been ejected from
combat. Gambler indeed.

Both versions of Joker Death are variations
on Level 5 Death and can teach Stragos that spell.

ジョーカーデス

Joker Death

Joker Doom

7 - 7 - 7

All enemies die (both sides).
Always succeeds, regardless of immunity, but very rarely
occurs. Certain monster formations lock this out entirely,
but only a few, mostly boss battles with special end
scripts.

Both versions of Joker Death are variations
on Level 5 Death and can teach Stragos that spell.

Unblockable magic damage
to all enemies (both sides), a bit stronger at 130 power than -ga
attack spells.

セブンフラッシュ

Seven Flash

7-Flush

diamond - diamond - diamond

Unblockable magic damage
to all enemies (both sides), stronger at 80 power than -ra attack
spells.

If anything, it ought to be Diamond
Flush. Sevens have nothing to do with it as far as I can tell,
and anyway, a flush means all cards in a hand have the
same suit, not the same value.

kahran042 suggests, and this makes
more sense than any other explanation I've seen, that the
"seven" refers to the seven colors of the rainbow.
The screen does, after all, flash multiple colors during the
attack. This tips the balance back in favor of "flash"
over "flush". The English version of the GBA
remake apparently calls this "Prismatic Flash",
which fits the same idea as well.

ミシディアうさぎ

Mysidia Rabbit

Lagomorph

Any other combination

Minimal HP recovery to
all allies (both sides), cures 'darkness', 'poison', and 'sleep'.
Unblockable, but oddly does NOT ignore magic defense,
so characters with higher magic defense are healed less.
Also does NOT damage the undead, unlike most healing
abilities. 10 power.

Named for a recurring mage
town.

The following message appears
along with the rabbit:

むぐむぐ？ むぐむぐ？ むぐ～

Mghmgh? Mghmgh? Mghhh

Mugu mugu?

That's normally the sound of munching
on something with a closed mouth.

ぜになげ

Coin Toss

GP Rain

Heiji's Truncheon turns Slots into Coin Toss.
Setzer can use it to damage all enemies {one side?} by throwing
your hard-earned cash at then. More reliable than Slots, but it uses
up money and takes up an accessory slot.

Coin toss consumes 30 times the user's
level in gil, or all remaining money if less. The damage equals
twice the gil spent, split between the number of enemies. At level
99, this means 2,970 gil for a total of 5,940 damage. Monsters
using this skill consume the gil they would otherwise drop
rather than the party's gil.

Attempting to use this skill when flat-out
broke will result in the following message:

See elsewhere for my comments
on the accuracy (or rather, lack thereof) of
"moogle"
for モーグリ.

Summary

Mog first appears leading ten other moogles to
help Lock protect Tina. Later, the thief Lone Wolf, trying to avoid capture after
stealing a treasure, takes Mog hostage, but Mog does a little
dance that knocks them both halfway off the cliff. If the party helps Mog up, he
joins them.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Mog goes back
to the moogle cave under Narshe,
but when the party finds him, there's no trace of the other moogles,
except for Moruru's Charm. Whether
they are dead, in hiding, or something else may forever remain a
mystery. However, Mog is entirely willing to (re)join the party.

Unique Abilities

おどる

Dance

Dance

Mog can learn eight dance sets, each of which
includes four moves. Mog learns a dance set by winning a battle in
the corresponding terrain.

Note that the terrain must remain
unchanged during the battle to learn the corresponding dance
(meaning you can't successfully use a different Dance if you're
triyng to learn a new one), but the only other requirement is that
Mog be in the active party. It doesn't even matter what condition
he's in.

Using Dance starts Mog uncontrollably
dancing one of these sets as chosen by the player, and he will
keep using a random move from that set automatically each turn
for the rest of the battle or until incapacitated. If the terrain doesn't
match the dance, Mog may stumble and fail to start dancing,
but success will change the terrain to match the dance.

Dances fail at a 50% rate when on
incompatible terrain, but since the terrain changes once the dance
works, that's only a problem when starting off. Multiple dancers
trying to use different dance sets will still trip each other up,
though.

See below for the eight dance sets and
their abilities, with the abilities within each set in decreasing
probability of appearance. The first occurs with a 7/16
chance, the second with a 6/16 chance, the third with a 2/16
chance, and the fourth with a 1/16 chance. I've only described
the individual abilities the first time each appears, so where
one has no description, check the earlier dance sets.
All Dance abilities are unreflectable.

Win a battle on most types of open terrain,
including grasslands, the Beast Plain, and even the airship deck,
with Mog in the party to learn Wind Rhapsody.

かぜのラプソディ

Wind Rhapsody

Wind Song

かまいたち

Wind Scythe

Wind Slash

にっこうよく

Sunbathing

Sun Bath

プラズマ

Plasma

Plasma

コカトリス

Cockatrice

Cokatrice

To give an oversimplified description,
かまいたち (kamaitachi), 鎌鼬 in kanji,
basically refers to gashes caused by intense winds.
Sunbathing is 日光浴 in kanji.

Wind Scythe inflicts unblockable
Wind magic damage on all enemies
(both sides) at 48 power, not quite as strong as the -ra attack spells,
but it keeps full damage against multiple targets, putting it closer to
-ga spells against a group.

Sunbathing recovers HP for all allies
(both sides) at 50 power, which is five times as effective as
Cure and more than 75%
as strong as Curega.
Unblockable and ignores defense, but damages undead
targets.

Cockatrice inflicts defense-ignoring magic
damage, a bit weaker than Flare
at 50 power, on one enemy, and also inflicts 'petrified'. 96 hit rate,
giving it a small chance to miss even a target with no magic evade,
and it additionally always entirely misses targets immune to instant
death, not even dealing damage.

Win a battle in a forest with
Mog in the party to learn Forest Nocturne.

もりのノクターン

Forest Nocturne

Forest Suite

このはらんぶ

Leaf Flurry

Rage

しんりんよく

Basking in the Forest

Harvester

おにび

Will-o'-the-Wisp

Elf Fire

ウォンバット

Wombat

Wombat

Leaf Flurry is 木の葉乱舞 in kanji.

Leaf Flurry inflicts unblockable magic
damage at 50 power on all enemies (both sides) and inflicts full
damage to multiple targets, making it marginally stronger than
Wind Scythe but without the element.

しんりんよく
(shinrinyoku), 森林浴 in kanji, refers
to walking through a forest to soak in the clean air and attain
emotional tranquility.

Win a battle in a desert with Mog in the party
to learn Desert Lullaby.

さばくのララバイ

Desert Lullaby

Desert Aria

すなあらし

Sandstorm

Sand Storm

ありじごく

Ant Lion

Antlion

かまいたち

Wind Scythe

Wind Slash

ミーアキャット

Meerkat

Kitty

Sandstorm is 砂嵐 in kanji.

Sandstorm inflicts Wind
magic damage on all enemies (both sides) with 45 power and 100 hit rate,
like a weaker, blockable Wind Scythe.

Ant Lion, 蟻地獄 in kanji (literally
"ant hell" or even more literally "ant ground
prison"), refers to an actual creature that buries itself at the
bottom of a pit it makes in the sand or dirt. Also called doodlebugs,
real ant lions typically measure less than an inch long, unlike the
monstrous beasts often found in Final Fantasy games.

Ant Lion attempts to cause instant death
with 100 hit rate, more accurate than
Death, and works normally
even on undead targets. Stamina can block it.

Win a battle in a town or similar area
with Mog in the party to learn Love Serenade.

あいのセレナード

Love Serenade

Love Sonata

おにび

Will-o'-the-Wisp

Elf Fire

ぼうれい

Apparition

Specter

おとしあな

Pit

Snare

バク

Tapir

Tapir

Apparition is 亡霊 in kanji.

Apparition inflicts 'confusion' status
on one enemy, more accurate at 120 hit rate than
Confuse.

Pit is 落とし穴 in kanji.

Snare attempts to cause instant death
with 100 hit rate, more accurate than
Death, and works normally
even on undead targets. Delays dying counterattacks when it
succeeds, which usually means canceling them outright.
Stamina can block this.

The tapir, a rare creature distantly related
to the horse and the rhinoceros, looks more or less like the
in-game representation.

The Tapir ability is fairly complicated. It is
unblockable and cures all allies of 'darkness', 'zombie', 'poison',
'kappa', 'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk', 'confusion',
'slip', 'sleep', 'slow', and 'stop' status, but displays a "miss"
except on targets afflicted with 'sleep'. Tapir will additionally
restore full HP and MP to any character in 'sleep' status, even
if the target is undead.

Kahran042 adds that tapirs eat (usually bad)
dreams in Japanese mythology. This explains the extra effect
on a sleeping target, and also why one shows up automatically
if someone stays asleep for too long, though that version only
removes 'sleep' status.

Win a battle on a mountainside or the Mystic
Continent with Mog in the party to learn Earth Blues.

だいちのブルース

Earth Blues

Earth Blues

がけくずれ

Rockfall

Land Slide

ソニックブーム

Sonic Boom

Sonic Boom

にっこうよく

Sunbathing

Sun Bath

うりんこ

Wild Piglets

Whump

Rockfall is 崖崩れ in kanji.

Rockfall inflicts defense-ignoring
unblockable magic damage to one enemy, a bit stronger at
65 power than Flare.

Sonic Boom removes 5/8 of the target's
current HP, inflicts 'slip' status, and always hits unless the target
is immune to instant death, in which case it always fails.

うりんこ (urinko)
is a nickname for wild boar piglets.
They have striped fur for camoflage that resembles
certain striped types of melon (うり), leading to the nickname,
which basically translates to "melon kid".

Wild Piglets inflict unblockable
defense-ignoring magic damage to one enemy, a bit weaker
at 53 power than Flare,
but always miss targets with 'levitate' status. Though not as
amusing, the much more common Rockfall is plainly a better
skill.

Win a battle on the Lethe River or underwater
in the Serpent's Way with Mog in the party to learn Water Harmony.
You can only learn this dance before the Major Plot Spoiler.

みずのハーモニー

Water Harmony

Water Rondo

エルニーニョ

El Niño

El Nino

プラズマ

Plasma

Plasma

ぼうれい

Apparition

Specter

あらいぐま

Raccoon

Wild Bear

El Niño is an unusually warm current
that occurs off the west coast of South America every few years and
leads to abnormal weather problems, and the ocean life doesn't
generally deal with it very well either.

El Niño inflicts unblockable
Water magic damage to all enemies
(both sides) at 61 power, about the same strength as a -ra attack
spell, but maintains full damage regardless of the number of targets,
putting it on par with a -ga spell against a group.

"Wild Bear" almost makes
sense, as あらい (arai, violent or rough) +
くま (kuma, bear), but it's not right.
One dictionary defines あらいぐま
(araiguma)
as the Eurasian badger (meles meles),
but others say it means a raccoon, and the sprite itself looks
more like a raccoon than anything else. Wikipedia also agrees
that the term refers to procyon lotor, the racoon.
In any case, the kanji, 洗熊, literally translate to
"washing bear".

Raccoon is most likely the best recovery skill
in the game. At 100 power, it recovers as much HP as one and a
half Curega spells for all allies
(both sides), and additionally cures 'darkness', 'zombie', 'poison',
'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk', 'confusion', 'slip',
'sleep', 'slow', 'stop', and 'frozen' status. Like most healing abilities,
it ignores defense, is unblockable, and damages the undead.

Win a battle in a cave with Mog
in the party to learn Darkness Requiem. His brief first appearance
counts.

やみのレクイエム

Darkness Requiem

Dusk Requiem

らくばん

Cave-In

Cave In

おとしあな

Pit

Snare

おにび

Will-o'-the-Wisp

Elf Fire

どくがえる

Poison Frog

Pois. Frog

Cave-In is 落磐 in kanji.

Cave-In removes 3/4 of the target's HP,
inflicts 'slip' status, and always hits unless the target is immune
to instant death, in which case it always fails.

Poison Frog is 毒蛙 in kanji.

Poison Frog inflicts unblockable
Poison magic damage and
'poison' status on one enemy, a bit stronger at 56 power
than Bio cast to a
single target, making it, perhaps sadly, the game's strongest
Poison magic.

Win a battle in the Narshe
icefields with Mog in the party to learn Snowman Rondo.

ゆきだるまロンド

Snowman Rondo

Snowman Jazz

スノーボール

Snowball

Snowball

なだれ

Avalanche

Surge

おとしあな

Pit

Snare

ゆきうさぎ

Mountain Hare

Ice Rabbit

Snowball removes 1/2 of the target's HP,
inflicts 'slip' status, and always hits unless the target is immune
to instant death, in which case it always fails.

Avalanche is 雪崩 in kanji.

Avalanche inflicts unblockable
Ice magic damage to all enemies
(both sides), a bit weaker at 55 power than
Blizzara,
but it keeps full damage even against multiple targets, putting
it close to Blizzaga's
damage against a group.

Mountain Hare is 雪兎 in kanji (literally
"snow hare"). Scientifically, at least, it refers to the species
lepus timidus, and not to the arctic hare, which is
lepus arcticus, though common use may vary.

Mountain Hare heals all allies at 60 power,
nearly as strong as Curega,
and is unblockable, ignores defense, and damages the
undead.

Secret Deathblow Skill

モーグリらんぶ

Moogle Flurry

Moogle Rush

モーグリ乱舞 in kanji. The appearance
of the attack and both versions of the name seem to allude to
Mash's skills at least vaguely.

Massive unblockable defense-ignoring
magic damage to one enemy, 150 power (for comparison,
Flare is 60). Stronger than
any other character, kupo!

ガウ

Gau

Gau

Character Class: やせいじ (yasei ji, 野生児, Wild Youth)

Summary

While looking for a way to reach Narshe, Mash
and Cayenne run into Gau on the Beast Plain. He hangs out with monsters,
demands food, and gets in a fight with Mash when they give him some, but he's
actually rather friendly and surprisingly intelligent considering his background.
Gau takes a swift liking to the others and pals around with everyone until
the Major Plot Spoiler, except for the usual absence during the Genjuu
search.

After the Major Plot Spoiler, Gau
goes back to running around the Beast Plain, but
he rejoins as soon as the others find him. Keep in mind, though,
that he won't appear unless there's room for him in the active party.

Unique Abilities

Unlike most characters,
Gau does not have a Battle command. This also means he has no secret
deathblow skill.

あばれる

Rage

Rage

Rage lets the user imitate a monster, which
the player chooses from the list of those Gau has learned. He will
continue to act automatically for the rest of the battle or until
incapacitated, randomly selecting each turn between a normal
attack or an ability determined by the chosen monster. In addition
to the ability, the user will inherit many of the other strengths and
weaknesses of the monster (for one thing, never use healing
magic with an undead Rage!). These effects apply starting
with his first action under the Rage.

Protections and weaknesses
generally add to whatever he already has from equipment
in the same way as multiple pieces of equipment do,
but there are two meaningful exceptions that I'm aware of.
If Gau is using a Relic Ring and Rages a monster that is not
undead, the monster's lack of undeadness overrides the
ring, causing him to react normally to healing effects and
so forth. However, the one that is more likely to matter is that
Raging a monster that lacks instant death protection will
negate the effect of a Safety Bit, causing Gau to become
vulnerable to these attacks even though his equipment
ought to make him immune. Both accessories work normally
until the Rage activates, though.

Rage also confers certain special
traits, including dying when MP runs out, being humanoid for
purposes of determining Maneater damage, and, as already
noted, being undead. Additionally, Gau inherits the weapon
graphic used by the monster selected, but this is purely
cosmetic and has no functional effect. The monster flag that
causes attacks in 'kappa' status to influct full damage and
always be critical hits ought to apply as well, but Raging in
'kappa' status is somewhat glitched, and one consequence
of that is that the flag won't help you.

See the Rage
summary page for skill information, or the (incomplete)
monster page for more details
on the characteristics of Gau's more than 250 rages.

Though trickier to use than most other
abilities, Rage is incredibly versatile. It provides many spells
and skills that are otherwise not available until later in the game,
if at all. Careful selection can also give Gau a considerable
defensive advantage, since many monsters have useful
immunities.

とびこむ

Leap

Leap

Leap appears only on the Beast Plain.
When he uses it, Gau jumps into the group of monsters, ending
combat (without rewards) and leaving the party until randomly
appearing after the defeat of all monsters in a later battle.
The monsters in the battle in which he leaves and the one in
which he returns are added to the list of monsters that he can
imitate. Gau will not learn Rages for any monsters
fought in battles between the one in which he leaves and the
one in which he returns. Furthermore, if attacked when he returns,
he will run off again instead of rejoining the party at that time,
and will not learn any Rages for that battle.

If Gau is the only party member, Leap
will fail with the following message:

とびこめない！！

Can't Leap!!

Can't dive!!

An unfortunately inconsistent translation,
but most players are unlikely to try that anyway.

ゴゴ

Gogo

Gogo

Character Class: ものまねし (monomane shi, ものまね士, Mimicker)

Summary

Probably the most obscure character, Gogo
turns up in a strange cave only reachable by
being sucked in by the Zone Eaters on the northeastern island
after the Massive Plot Spoiler. Gogo will join the party as soon as the
others find Gogo and explain the situation.

Gogo cannot equip Genjuu.

Theories abound as to Gogo's true identity.
The most popular theory seems to be that Gogo is actually
Setzer's sort-of-girlfriend Daryl,
possibly with amnesia (as if there weren't enough amnesiacs
already), who vanished years before and was presumed dead
when her airship crashed. However,
I've also heard rumors that Gogo is actually any of various characters
who are presumed dead or otherwise unaccounted for (including
Emperor Gastra, Bannan, Shadow's former
partner Billy, and even General Leo), the same Gogo who
appears in Final Fantasy V, and even Adlai Stevenson, a failed candidate
for US president in the 1950s. And then there are those who think
Gogo is simply Gogo, no more, no less. Who can say?

Unique Abilities

ものまね

Mimicry

Mimic

Gogo's Mimicry command repeats the last
action any party member performed, but using Gogo's stats, and
without needing any special setup or consuming any MP or items
(except that Coin Toss still uses gil). It's also the only way to reliably
summon a Genjuu repeatedly in the same battle.

By default, Gogo has only the Mimicry command,
but Gogo's status menu lets the player fill the remaining three command
slots from the commands of the other characters, with some exceptions
(the list most typically includes Battle, Magic, Item, Steal, Deathblow
Sword, Throw, Machines, Deathblow Techniques, Magicseal Sword,
Memorized Techniques, Sketch, Slots, Dance, and Rage).
The commands work exactly as they do for the original users, except
that they use Gogo's stats, and (where applicable) Gogo can use
any skill under these commands that the original user has learned.
The Magic command instead works by granting Gogo each spell
that at least one other member of the active party has learned.
Set commands from the status menu. Where a character has
an alternate command available by wearing an accessory, Gogo
can also use the alternate command by equipping that character's
standard command and wearing the same accessory.

Character-specific skills for characters that
were never recruited or are permanently unavailable will not
appear on Gogo's custom list. This normally means Dance if
Mog was skipped earlier and has not yet joined the party, and
Throw if you didn't wait for Shadow on
the Mystic Continent. However, skills for any characters
skipped by glitching, such as Magicseal Sword if you bypassed
getting Celes, will also be absent. Skills for characters that were
in the party before the Major Plot Spoiler will appear as long as
these characters are not permanently unavailable, even if they
have not yet rejoined the party. Additionally, if characters are
hacked into the party, or commands hacked onto characters,
that would not normally be available, Gogo can select them
too. For example, hacking Bannan into the party would add
Pray to the list, as would hacking the command onto a
character already in the party.

Gogo cannot learn skills for other characters,
regardless of active commands. For example, setting Dance
will not allow Gogo to acquire new Dance sets.

Gogo cannot, either through equipping
commands or using Mimicry, Transform like Tina (though the bug
in Stragus's Ripple does make it possible, if impractical, to get
'transform' status through swaps). Gogo also cannot mimic Umaro's
attacks, the Control command, defending, or changing rows, but
can do most of those in other ways. On the other hand, some things
Gogo can mimic might come as a surprise, including
Interceptor's counterattacks.

There is no "can't mimic" message;
Gogo will just imitate the last mimickable action, or use a normal
attack if not applicable.

Secret Deathblow Skill

Note that Gogo must have the Battle
command set in order to have a chance of using this.

You can catch glimpses of Umaro
peeking out of the Narshe caves early in the game, but you can't
actually reach him until after beating
Valigarmander after the Major Plot Spoiler. Take the
magicite from his sculpture, and
he'll attack. If present, Mog
will order Umaro to help after the battle, making a loyal ally out
of him. Otherwise, he just kind of sits in the corner sulking
until you come back with Mog.

A
weaker version of enemy
Umaro in the game data hints at plans to allow for an
earlier run-in, but the game never uses it.

Umaro cannot equip Genjuu.

Unique Abilities

Umaro is odd in that, except for
accessories, his equipment is fixed (a Bone Club and a
Snow Muffler), and he does what he feels like in combat.

If not equipped with anything special, Umaro
will attack each round using either a simple normal attack or by
flinging himself at an opponent. This bodyslam attack is less
common (about a 38% chance), but is unblockable and ignores
defense.

When equipped with a Fury Ring, Umaro will
fling an ally at an enemy at least as often as he attacks normally.
This does no damage to the ally. The attack is unblockable and
ignores defense, and adds the attack power of each weapon the
ally has equipped to his own attack power of 198, capped at 255
total. He also prefers to throw allies who are in 'confusion' or
'sleep' status, which has the useful side effect of removing those
status effects. Frequencies with just the Fury Ring are about 37%
attack, 25% bodyslam, 38% throw.

ふぶき

Snowstorm

Storm

吹雪 in kanji.

With the Snowstorm Orb equipped,
Umaro will use Snowstorm at least as often as he attacks
normally. It hits all enemies (both sides) with unblockable
Ice magic damage at 100 power,
between Blizzara and
Blizzaga in strength.
Frequencies with just the Snowstorm Orb are about 37%
attack, 25% bodyslam, and 38% Snowstorm.

With both accessories equipped,
Umaro will use all four attacks with approximately equal
frequency.

When equipped with a Black Belt,
Umaro's counterattack may be any of the abilities available
to him, not just a normal attack as for other characters.

？？？？？？

??????

?????

Character Class: ゆうれい (yuurei, 幽霊, Ghost)

Summary

Up to two ghosts can join the party
temporarily on the Grim Train, if you ask them and the party
has space for them. Each has a Ring of the Dead permanently
equipped, and it's unclear why they're willing to help. Maybe
they're just bored.

Unique Abilities

とりつく

Possess

Possess

A ghost can possess an enemy. This is
an unblockable attack (though it may fail) that eliminates the
target, regardless of immunities and even if undead, but
completely removes the user from the party.

ビックス

Biggs

Vicks

ウェッジ

Wedge

Wedge

Character Class: ていこくへい (teikoku hei, 帝国兵, Imperial Soldier)

Summary

Biggs and Wedge, two Imperial soldiers,
accompany Tina at the beginning of the game. Each has a
Mithril Sword, Buckler, Leather Hat, and Leather Armor
permanently equipped. Neither has any special abilities,
but they hardly need them considering what
they're riding.

There's been a ridiculous amount of argument over whether
the one name is "Vicks" or "Biggs". The US version uses
"Vicks", but apparently Biggs and Wedge fit a somewhat obscure
Star Wars reference, and the US version of the Playstation remake
also uses "Biggs". While the Japanese looks like "Vicks"
or "Bix" (ビ fits with both 'bi' and 'vi', while the クス is either a 'ks' or an 'x'),
a Japanese Wikipedia
entry supports the use of "Biggs", and it seems that every Square
game *except* FF6 with these characters has his name as ビッグス (and I've
confirmed that it's at least true for Chrono Trigger), which *does*
correspond to "Biggs". The most likely explanation is a typo in FF6.

The Moogles

モグリン

Moglin

Kupek

モグプウ

Mogpuu

Kupop

モグッチ

Mogucci

Kumama

モルル

Moruru

Kuku

モグタン

Mogtan

Kutan

モグール

Mogool

Kupan

モグシン

Mogshin

Kushu

モグポン

Mogpon

Kurin

ムグムグ

Mugmug

Kuru

ズモモグ

Zumomog

Kamog

Character Class: モーグリ (Moogle)

Summary

The moogles, with Mog leading them, help Lock
protect Tina near the beginning of the game. None besides Mog
have any special abilities. Each has a Buckler and a weapon
permanently equipped. Their weapons are, in the same order
as the character names are listed above, a Mithril Spear,
a Morning Star, a Mithril Claw, a Chain Flail, a Mithril Sword,
a Full Moon, a Chocobo Brush, a Mithril Spear, a Mithril Sword,
and a Boomerang.

The ten generic moogles temporary
occupy the character slots later used for Cayenne, Shadow,
Edgar, Mash, Celes, Stragus, Relm, Setzer, Gau, and Gogo,
with that order corresponding with the order the moogles are
listed above. Lock and Mog are in the party at that point and
so keep their own slots, Tina is skipped since she's already
been initialized by then, and Umaro's slot is spared since he's
the 14th character and those three plus ten moogles only
make 13 total.

Normally, this temporary reuse
wouldn't have any lingering effects, but there are two ways
that it can show itself. The trickier, but more obvious, way is
to skip initializing a character by any means necessary
(most easily done by glitching through a soldier in Lock's
scenario to finish it without finding Celes), then reach a point
where the game forces that character into the party somehow
(such as the mass battle at Narshe, for the eight characters
involved). Since the character was never initialized, the moogle
will still be in that slot (Mogtan if you skipped Celes). The
foolproof, but easily overlooked, way is to pass the Major
Plot Spoiler, at which time the party is disbanded, so
equipment is removed from inactive characters and placed
in the inventory. At this point, data has been initialized and
put into use for all characters whose slots were used, with the
exception of Gogo. He hasn't appeared yet, but the game
still regards his slot as belonging to a main character, and
unequips the character found. Zumomog's data remains
there, so you get his Boomerang and Buckler.

バナン

Bannan

Banon

Character Class: しんかん (shinkan, 神官, Shinto Priest)

Summary

Bannan is playable only for
the short period of the game when he travels to Narshe. He is
permanently equipped with a Punisher, a Triangle Hat, and a
Silk Robe.

Unique Abilities

いのる

Pray

Health

Bannan's Pray recovers HP for all party
members. It has the same strength at 28 as
Cura, but costs nothing.
As is typical of healing spells, this always hits,
ignores defense, and damages the undead.

Though normally you can't have
both skills available at once, Magicseal Sword will seal Pray
and treat it as having Cura's
25 MP casting cost. Which makes a certain sense, since it
essentially is that spell, just executed through a
command.

レオ

Leo

Leo

Character Class: しょうぐん (shougun, 将軍, General)

Summary

Leo is playable only very briefly
for a plot battle. He is permanently equipped with a Crystal Sword,
Aegis Shield, Gold Helm, Gold Armor, Giant's Bracer, and Proof
of Initiation.

The menu is sealed while you control Madin, so there's
no way to see his class. However, a little poking around in the game data reveals
that it would be モーグリ (moogle) if you could see it! I guess they figured it didn't
matter.

Summary

Controllable only during
an extended interactive flashback, Madin can't do any fighting. Thankfully, the
designers had the sense to give him the Dash Shoes accessory permanently
equipped (though you have to look at the game data to confirm this since the
menu is inaccessible), because there's quite a bit of running around
involved.

Unused Command

しょうかん

Summon

Summon

Summons the equipped Genjuu, at its
normal casting cost. Unlike summoning through the magic menu,
this works repeatedly in the same battle as long as the user
has enough MP for it. However, a bug in the command causes
it to always target the party, even for offensive effects. Since
all offensive summons except Jihad have a flag set to abort when
targeting player characters, this makes the command useless
for summoning them.

Perhaps this would have belonged
to one character or another but was replaced with a different skill
during development, or maybe an accessory would have
enabled it. It's also possible that the game uses it internally,
with a targeting override, to implement summoning.